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Tried and True Native Plant Selections for the Mid-Atlantic
This handsome, native, eastern North American* evergreen is the State Flower of Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Its glossy, leathery leaves make lovely winter-season decorations that were so popular in the early twentieth century that Connecticut passed a law in 1917 to protect Mountain Laurels from being stolen from private property to sell.** The Virginia Native Plant Society named Mountain Laurel as Wildflower of the Year in 1994.
*It is more or less common throughout the Mid-Atlantic except in the outer Coastal Plain of VA where it is infrequent.
**As part of its criminal law reform, CT repealed the Laurel Law in 1969.
Learn more about Kalmia latifolia.